Alicia Chang 2009

Associated Press

The winner of the 2009 Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, an annual prize for young science journalists, is Alicia Chang, a writer for the Associated Press in Los Angeles, Calif.

Chang received the award and its $1000 prize for four stories: “Want scientific immortality? Name a sea worm;” “Hospitals, doctors deal with swine flu jitters;” “Death Valley works to preserve night sky;” and “Climate change threatens Channel Islands artifacts.”

The panel of judges cited Chang for her enterprising and well-organized stories on a variety of topics, and for an engaging style that used real people to tell stories.

The judges also awarded an Honorable Mention to Sam Kean for a collection of four stories: “What's an Element Got To Do to Get on the Periodic Table These Days?” in Slate; “Religiously Transmitted Diseases,” in Search; “Woods Hole's Marine Lab Seeks Greater Reach,” in The Chronicle Review; and “Barcode of Life,” in Search. The judges citied Kean for his willingness to tackle tough topics, and for his lively writing.

The award will be presented by the Evert Clark Fund and the National Association of Science Writers, in conjunction with the National Press Foundation. The ceremony will take place on Oct. 18 during the annual meeting of the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing in Austin, Texas.

Judges for the 2009 award were Susan Milius, writer at Science News; Peggy Girshman, editor of Kaiser Health News; Liz Pennisi, writer at Science; Marianne Lavelle, writer for the Center for Public Integrity; and David Lindley, author of such books as Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science and The End of Physics: The Myth of a Unified Theory.